


Get Back Up

by BurnItAllDownDahling



Series: A Family Repair [3]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M, Spardacest (Devil May Cry)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-08 07:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21232376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurnItAllDownDahling/pseuds/BurnItAllDownDahling
Summary: Ten years after "The Fallen Ones," Nero finally gets his father back... maybe.





	Get Back Up

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Fallen Ones](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21178127) by [BurnItAllDownDahling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurnItAllDownDahling/pseuds/BurnItAllDownDahling). 

> Sequelish enough that I almost made this a chapter 2 of "The Fallen Ones," but different enough that I decided to make it its own thing. I recommend reading that fic first, but if you'd rather not, the canon divergence is that Vergil found Nero as a child, and had just enough time to give him to Dante to raise, before Mundus turned him into Nelo Angelo.

They bring him home wrapped in magic and stuffed into etherspace, like a gift. In a way, that's exactly what he is: a gift to both of them. A reward. Not for the battle; they are both heirs of Sparda, and battle is a reward in itself. This, though, is the repayment for all their sleepless nights and long talks full of aching silence, the little touches that both of them need and pretend not to, the prayers they know better than to offer. (But do anyway.)

It's been harder on Dante, Nero thinks. Childhood -- even one as fucked up as Nero's -- is a luxury in many ways. There were days when he could play or laugh or read a book, and forget. For Dante, the play has only been a distraction and the laughter a veneer. Nero always notices how he falters mid-laugh, as a shadow of memory passes over him and he inevitably thinks of what his brother is going through while he enjoys his life. It happens every time. There is nothing Dante does, ever, without thinking of Vergil, and wondering, and worrying.

The worry is visible again now as Dante paces in Devil May Cry's library. Terrell banished them both up here when Dante started hovering. The witch is working on their prize down in the vault, which is warded and "silenced," whatever that means, and somehow ideal for high-level demonic surgery. The problem is obvious, though. Nero's the one who fought Nelo Angelo to a standstill, wearing him down until that horrible armor cracked and the face of Mundus' highest servant was revealed... but there was nothing like recognition in that face. By the time they took the unconscious body out of etherspace to hand over to Terrell, Mundus was dead -- Dante's doing, after merging with the Force Edge and claiming his father's form -- but there was still nothing in Vergil's cold bluish face, or those red glowing eyes. No hate, no pain. No Mundus, thank Dante, but no one else either. No brother. No father.

Maybe when they get that fucking armor off of him.

"I took too long," Dante says.

Nero pulls himself out of his own funk to find Dante still in the middle of the room, hands on his hips, head bowed.

"Bullshit," Nero says, softly. It's the truth. Kids can't help needing time to grow up, and young warriors can't help needing time to get strong enough to be of use. Dante promised Vergil he'd wait until Nero didn't need him anymore... and Nero, abandoned by his mother, stolen and tortured by demons, rescued by his dying father and then abandoned again, was not going to be okay if Dante too ran off and got himself killed. Leaving aside the mental trauma, Mundus has been sending minions after them on a regular basis, and without Dante to protect him, Nero might have been taken again. So he says this now to remind Dante that there's no practical way he could have gone to Mallet Island sooner. He reminds Dante that it's not his fault.

The fault is Nero's. Blame where blame is due.

"Ten fucking years, though," Dante says. He lifts his hands and pushes his fingers through his hair, pushing it back, and for an instant he looks like the father than Nero can barely remember. Vergil's face is a little different, he thinks, but what he really latched onto as a child was the hair. Dante's is a wild mess even when he tries to stay groomed. Vergil's, despite pain and dirt, stayed mostly in place. 

"Ten years with that shit eating at him," Dante growls. "Ten years of Mundus in his head, fucking with him constantly. 'He's strong,' I kept telling myself. 'He won't break.' But everyone breaks, eventually..."

He trails off and just stands there, shaking a little. He probably needs a hug. Nero wants to hug him. But things have been fraught between them lately, because fifteen-year-old boys do not handle anxiety well, and fifteen-year-old boys who know they're the reason their fathers have endured more than ten years of constant torture tend to take that out on anyone safe who's nearby. Dante has been a pillar of safety for Nero -- his father surrogate, his friend, his teacher. Nero loves him more than life, which means that Nero has been a complete shit to him on multiple occasions. He's apologized. Dante understands. Still. There's a wall now, where there wasn't before.

A wisp appears in the room. Terrell's voice: "Come down."

Nero hops to his feet. Dante tenses. "The armor? That thing on his chest?"

"Removed. It had grown all through his chest cavity and spine, even riding his nerves up to his eyes and brain; nasty business. His healing abilities kicked in as I performed the extraction, though -- sluggish, but functional, despite ten years of abuse -- and his heart didn't stop. Fairly certain he didn't lose any memory, his ability to speak, or any of that. But." A sigh. "There's a big problem, Big D."

Dante stares at the wisp for a moment, then abruptly pivots on his heel to head for the library door. "I'm coming down."

"Right, then."

Nero falls in behind Dante -- and then stops in his tracks as Dante rounds on him. "No."

Nero bristles. "Like hell. He's my _father_ \-- "

Dante lights up. His eyes, his skin, even his teeth glow. He's on the brink of a full demonic transformation, and Nero freezes in his tracks because every non-human instinct within him warns that he is in danger of annihiliation. It's bullshit. Dante would never hurt him, but he can't help reacting. He hates having those instincts, because he doesn't like being manipulated by all his stupid demony shit, even though the demony shit is precisely why he had the strength to fight his father and survive. Dante knows he hates it, too, which is how Nero knows Dante is really on edge, because usually Dante knows better than to do this to him. Now, though, Nero feels Dante's next words as a command from the most powerful demon in their lair to a lesser demon not yet strong enough to challenge him, who's supposed to know his place. "_Stay. Here._"

So Nero stays -- jaw tight, fists clenched, furious. They're going to have a fight about this later, and Nero's going to make him fucking miserable for it. For now, he's stuck in the library as Dante turns and heads out of the room.

A long time, or so it seems, passes. When it's been long enough that Nero knows, he just _knows_, there's something wrong, he begins the laborious process of subverting Dante's command. He's his father's son, after all -- and, shit. He's fifteen. Even in the demon world, some rules are meant to be broken.

"'Stay here,' he said," Nero murmurs to himself. His instincts rely on his mind to work, so all he has to do is convince himself that he's doing Dante's bidding, even if he isn't. He knows Dante meant the library, so that part's a non-starter. He focuses on the verb. Verbs have a lot of wiggle room. "Stay. He wants me to shelter in place, basically. That's what he's always worried about, keeping me safe. He wants me to stay where I'll be safe." Important not to think too much about it. "But there _could_ be something dangerous here. This library contains books Sparda collected over two thousand years. A demon's idea of what counts as valuable knowledge is way different from what a human's might be."

His father had read to him from a book about Sparda, over on top of that stack. He'd curled against Vergil's belly, and Vergil had held Nero close while he'd cried because he could not save his father from the bad man.

Focus.

"So," Nero continues. He gets up, pacing himself in order to shake off the jangly feeling which demands that he obey, obey, do as he is bidden. "Dante's in the vault. The vault can be dangerous, but not when he's there with me. In fact, I'm much safer there with him than I am here in the library, alone. Anywhere that Dante is, is safe."

And just like that, the anxious, fluttering conviction that he is committing a great wrong against all the laws of demonkind, fades.

At once, Nero leaves the library and trots downstairs. At the heavy old door, he inputs the code that he stole from Dante. The lock, which is magically semi-sentient, is still reluctant; it knows he's not Dante, and doesn't like that. In a fury, Nero plants a hand over it and, well, _radiates Sparda-ness_ at it. Not Dante but kin of Dante, and ally of Dante who has recently fought at his side against the greatest lord of demonkind, and he's not gonna let some fucking _lock_ stop him from getting what he wants, so if the lock doesn't want to get smashed apart --

With a hiss, the lock opens, and Nero strides in.

And then he stops, because Vergil is standing there in the middle of the room.

He's naked, which allows Nero to see that at last his father's chest is free of that awful, gross mass of demonic tissue that Mundus sowed in him. Mundus called it a leash. It was actually a complex transformation spell, designed to force Vergil to do his bidding and to erode his will -- slowly and painfully, because Mundus was a cruel son of a bitch. The leash turned Vergil's flesh to armor and his mind into a weapon for his lord. But now it's gone, and Vergil is whole and more beautiful than Nero remembers. Everything in Nero aches at the sight. His father's face is naturally stern, unlike Dante's face, which seems built to smile. He's just a little leaner than Dante, now that the bulk of the armor isn't distorting his frame, and just a little taller. His head turns toward Nero as Nero comes in, and Nero stumbles forward again, hungry for the moment of recognition. He's dreamt of this. Vergil will narrow his eyes because Vergil does not deny his demonic instincts, and Nero is finally strong enough to merit caution. His father respects power, after all, and Nero wants his father to know how hard he's worked, _For you, for you, I let Dante beat me to a pulp for years so I could get stronger, I embraced the demon inside me even though I really just wanted to be a normal kid, **for you** \--_

But Vergil just looks at him. Nero stops again.

Dante is there, too, just past Vergil, his back to his brother. His head is bowed. They're both so still. Terrell turns to Nero. His expression is guarded, too neutral. Something's wrong.

"What..." Nero makes himself go forward again. Vergil's gaze tracks him. His father's eyes are beautiful... but there is nothing in them, as he watches Nero intently. It's a warrior's focus. There's an unsubtle tension in his body, which Nero recognizes from years of martial training. Even now, with Mundus dead, Nelo Angelo is ready to fight in his lord's name.

Terrell's tone is neutral, too. Careful. "I prioritized his soul, during the tissue extraction. His healing factor was strong enough to keep him alive even if I did something wrong on that level, but hanging onto a soul is a more fraught matter in half demons, and his was -- "

"It's me," Nero blurts. His voice shakes. "Father, it's _me_."

Vergil does not react. Dante is so still, beyond him.

Terrell sighs. "I'm sorry, lad."

"His soul." But Nero knows.

"Gone." Terrell glances at Dante, and sighs again. "Gone long before we got that thing off him. Near as I can tell, Mundus destroyed the last remnants of his soul years ago. Probably right after he returned to Mundus' service."

So Dante's wrong; it's not that he took too long, it's that they should never have let Vergil go back in the first place. Dante should have abandoned Nero and gone to face Mundus before Vergil succumbed to the leash. _Dante_ had been more than strong enough, even back then, because Vergil had given him the means to unlock the Force Edge, and if he'd just dumped Nero in the woods like he should have --

Terrell winces, glancing at Nero. "No, lad. That guilt you're feeling isn't right. Nobody to blame for this but Mundus." He's half Hell Butterfly; distantly Nero recalls that pure members of the species tend to flock around guilty souls, drinking their life energy when they despair. Maybe he's looking tasty to Terrell right now.

But Terrell is wrong. If Vergil's soul is gone, that's because Vergil went back to a master who promised to destroy it, then had ten leisurely years in which to try. Because of Nero.

Nero feels the rage coming and knows it's useless, irrational. Just the demon in him, seeking violence as a solution to every problem. Without strength, he can't protect anything he cares about; he knows this in his bones. His father never had to say it. But here Nero is, strong as shit, and _he has failed to protect his father_. There are some things that power cannot fix.

And yet he curses and flashes into his demonshape anyway, because he's so full of grief and fury and thwarted hate for Mundus, who _dares_ to be dead when Nero wants to rip his fucking heart out and _shit_ into the cavity, that he doesn't have any other way to express it. He needs to kill something. He wants to hurt someone. And though he sees Dante finally react from the corner of his gaze, turning around and murmuring, "Nero, what the hell," Dante does not accompany this with a command to stand down. 

So Nero does what he did eleven-ish years ago in a demon lord's throne room, as he cowered and bled and watched low demons stalk him and wished for someone to save him. He had heard a voice whisper, _Fight_, and looked up to see a man with white hair and silver eyes and such need in his face, such _soul_, such instant claim, that he'd known his father in that single glance. And Nero's arm had turned to light, and the low demons died. He saved himself. All because his father had made him strong.

So -- his eyes blurred with tears and shut besides -- Nero throws a blue-blazing right hook at this empty, nothing _thing_ that holds his father's shape, for no reason other than that his heart is broken and pain must be answered by pain.

Vergil's hand catches his fist.

It's not a full-force punch, granted. Sparda's blood flows true, and Nero's Devil Bringer can punch through mountains when he's feeling motivated -- but this is his father, and he's not _that_ fucked in the head. Still, Vergil's hand hardly jolts with the blow. Instead, his long fingers instantly close around Nero's hand.

Nero's so startled by this that he falls out of demonshape. An instant later Dante is beside him, in _his_ highest demonshape, snarling and snapping a leathery wing around Nero. But Vergil does not move. He doesn't drop Nero's fist, either; it's captured firmly, and held with significant demonic strength. His face is still empty, though.

Terrell's there in half a breath, staring at Nero's hand in Vergil's as if it's made of gold. "Hold the fuck still! Something's happening, here."

Dante glares at him. "Make him let go."

"No." Terrell leans in to peer close, apparently oblivious to the way Dante glows a little brighter and clearly contemplates murdering him. Then the weird little nubs on top of Terrell's head, which usually just look like strange hair ornaments, suddenly extend, and Nero stares as foot-long, feathery white antennae manifest. Terrell's gaze unfocuses as his antennae float toward Nero and Vergil's joined hands. "He's not hurting the lad, Dante, keep your, er, dear God, whatever's going on with your crotch in that form, intact. I need to study this."

"Why?" Nero tries to pull his hand free, and can't. Terrell hisses at him, swatting his wrist with an antenna. It feels like being spanked with a feather duster.

"Because I've been trying to understand _why_ his bloody soul is gone," Terrell snaps. He moves around them, circling the whole tableau. His eyes have gone white, and seem blind, but his antennae are jerking every which way now, examining Vergil in particular. "I thought he would've kept a kernel of it tucked away somewhere, at least, and it would be a simple matter of sussing that place out. If I was walking into a pissed-off demon lord's lair, and I knew he meant to take it, it's what I would've done. And from what you've told me, Dante, your brother's the clever one most of the time, yes? Tossing himself into hell aside."

Dante blinks and flickers back into humanshape. He's still got an arm around Nero's chest, which for the time being Nero doesn't mind because he's pretty freaked out. "Yeah?" He watches Terrell, and Nero can feel him trembling, just a little. Hope is hard. "What the hell are you saying? His soul _isn't_ gone?"

"Oh, no, the soul that was in him when Mundus sealed this armor, nope, that's chewed up and shat out, or whatever demon lords do when they devour a person this way." Nero chokes back a sob before he can stop it, and Terrell winces and glances at him. His irises and pupils abruptly reappear. "Um. Sorry. Bedside manner's always been my failing. Anyhow. There's a residue, is what I'm saying. Like tea leaves on the bottom of a cup -- and they're forming patterns that can't be random. But I thought at first they were just, I don't know, graffiti? Mundus rubbing it in by writing 'MUNDIE WAS HERE' or something to that effect. But what's written in him doesn't mean anything. When he grabbed the boy, though, something changed. The patterns got clearer. Still not true runes, but closer."

"Is that good?" Nero demands. It sounds good.

"No shitting idea, lad. I'd like to think so, but..."

Dante goes very still. "Mundus had both of them at one point," he says, very softly. There is something awful in his face. "When Nero was a small child. If he did something to Vergil -- set some trap whose trigger is in Nero -- "

"No," Nero says, startled. "The demons didn't have me that long, and Mundus never touched me, barely even looked at me. Father stole me before anything else could happen."

Dante glares at him. "You don't know that. Demon magic can be subtle, fuck with the mind, and you were _four years old_."

"I know my goddamn father!" Nero snarls back. He tries to shake Dante off. "He loved me! He wouldn't let -- "

But Nero cannot finish this sentence. Because his father would not have done this, either, if he could have helped it: become a living corpse. Let Nero and Dante fight to save him, with no hope of success. This is why Dante did not want him here, Nero understands suddenly. Because if Vergil's soul is gone, then it would be cruel to just let his body waste away when it will never again be more than a piece of meat. For mercy, Dante would have...

Abruptly Nero stops trying to shake Dante's arm off. He grips it instead, and turns his face into his uncle's shoulder, and tries to pretend that of the two of them, Dante's shaking harder. Dante sighs a little, presses his face against Nero's hair for a moment in lieu of a hug, then settles.

"It's a _lock spell_." Terrell abruptly stares at the still, standing corpse that is Nero's father. "Bloody hell, he _is_ a clever one! Or his master is." He grimaces. "The runes are a kind of static, inscribed spell -- one that exists in pieces, and won't work until those pieces are put together, forming the key." Terrell sighs and folds his arms. His antennae snap back into his head with a little _thwip_ sound, leaving only the pale buttons poking through his hair. He nods at Vergil. "One piece is here. Another has been written into you, lad, hidden amid the striations of your soul where no one would ever see it until now. There's one more piece out there, somewhere. Find it and the lock opens."

"And then?!" Nero pulls against Dante's arm, and Vergil's hand.

"Well, that's the question, innit?" Terrell shrugs. "Lady or the tiger, some hidden-away chunks of your father's soul or the resurrection of a pissed-off demon lord? And that all assumes we'll be able to find the third key. Though this is a clue." He comes over and nods toward Nero's trapped hand. "Whoever put this in place expected the lad to come into close contact with his father. So, who else might be expected to do that?"

Dante sighs and shakes his head, straightening. "About a thousand low demons and high-order lieutenants who served Mundus... and me." He lets go of Nero and steps around him, reaching up toward Vergil's face.

Terrell gasps. "What? Dante, you fool, let me examine you first -- "

Nero reacts without thinking, grabbing Dante's wrist with his free hand. "Are you crazy? If it might be Mundus -- "

"Then I'll kill him again." Nero cannot see his uncle's face, and he is suddenly glad for that. There are times when Dante can't hide the monster inside him. Nero gets it. He has such times too. Still. "I'll kill him, and bring him back again, and kill him a third time. Slow, if he's done this to my brother, and to you." He takes a deep breath, and Nero feels the monster recede. "But first of all, Mundus has never gotten his hands on me, except when we fought, and I didn't exactly give him much time to go inscribing spell-pieces into my soul. Second... kid. If there's even a slim chance it could be your father..." He looks at Nero and raises his eyebrows.

Then it's worth the risk. Isn't it? But suddenly it doesn't feel like that. Nero sets his jaw and focuses on Terrell. "If it's something Mundus did, could it hurt Dante? Not just resurrecting Mundus, but... I don't know. Something else?"

Dante blinks, as if he's actually surprised by the question. Terrell thinks for a moment, then shrugs. "Short answer, yes. _What_ it might do depends on what an angry demon lord, fearing the children of his greatest enemy and with time to get creative on one of those children, is likely to think up. Kill Dante dead? Slap a leash on him, the way Mundus did Vergil? Something worse? No way to know, without an exam." Terrell turns a hard gaze on Dante.

Nero glares at Dante too.

"Kid." Dante's gone positively incredulous. "It's no different from the risk we both took in going to fight Mundus in the first place."

"That was a fight. All you could do was die then -- and I was there, to fight beside you and make sure that didn't happen! I don't know what _this_ is."

"It's _your father_."

"Is it? For fuck's sake, Dante, would _he_ let you do this?"

Dante laughs, turning to gaze at Vergil almost fondly. "Oh my God, do you know how many times he's tried to kill me?"

"And then he asked you to _take care of me_." It's getting hard to talk. Nero's throat has tightened up. He can't think, either, caught between the need to have his father back and a newer, more inchoate fear. "You're talking like it's okay if something happens to you, as long as I can get him back. Well, I want you _both_, for fuck's sake! You're my father, too!"

Dante flinches and twitches around to stare at Nero. His mouth works once, but nothing comes out. He just keeps staring.

Terrell makes an annoyed sound and sort of flutters around Nero and extends his antennae again, laying both hands on Dante's shoulders. It takes maybe ten seconds, during which Dante just keeps staring, as if he's never seen Nero before. Nero glares back. Then Terrell exhales and steps back. "Yep. Third piece is you, Big D. And I rather doubt it's something Mundus put there, because, uh -- " He glances at Nero, his manner awkward.

Nero breaks off the staring contest with Dante in order to roll his eyes. "I know they're fucking."

"Oh. Well, yes, we're all demons here, true, what's a bit of incest. So, the inscription is all over the, hrrm, _more tender_ parts of your nature, Dante, few as those are, which means you must have been feeling rather special in the moment when the work was done. So unless you've been having an undisclosed but incredibly affectionate pen-palship with Mundus -- "

Dante sighs and shakes his head. "Terrell, shut the fuck up, please." He focuses on Nero, who's still holding his wrist. "Okay, then?"

Nero takes a deep breath and very deliberately releases Dante's wrist. "Yeah. _Now_ it's okay."

Instead of reaching immediately for Vergil, however, Dante cups the back of Nero's head. His eyes are very bright, but not with inner power this time. "Stupid kid," he says, very softly.

Nero bites his bottom lip. "Fuck off, old man." It's softer.

Dante shakes his head, steps forward, and kisses Nero's forehead. Then, letting go of Nero, he faces Vergil, and reaches up to cup his brother's cheek.

Nero's expecting... he's not sure what. Fireworks, maybe. Vergil's hand does blur up to catch Dante's wrist, with the same tight grip that he's got on Nero's hand. His eyes shut for a moment. Terrell's antennae quiver; he inhales a little at whatever he's perceiving with his otherworldly senses. Nero tries to imagine it: runes forming, a spell unlocking, something shut away unfurling, a soul flowing back into its rightful place -- _Please let this be it_, he thinks. Prays.

Then Vergil's eyes open, and Nero's heart feels like it's going to explode with joy. They're not empty anymore.

Vergil lets go of Nero and Dante, focusing at once on Nero. Nero just stares back, breathing hard, drinking in the mobility of his face, the shadings of thought and weight in his gaze, the old familiar feel of his presence, everything. Ten years. What if he hates Nero for that? What if Nero's wrong and Vergil never loved him? What if he doesn't remember Nero --?

_Jesus Christ, I'm babbling in my own fucking head_, he thinks wildly. And then Vergil says, very softly, "Nero. I'm glad to see you so well."

That's all it takes. Then Nero is on him, arms wrapped around his chest, face hard against Vergil's shoulder. Nero's sobbing and he doesn't even care. He feels Dante's hand on his back and that just makes it worse. Vergil seems surprised, but after a moment he folds an arm around Nero, too, and now Nero thinks he might never stop crying. "Hey, look what you did, dumbass," Dante teases his brother, but his voice is strangely light, almost wavering. As if he's suddenly been set free from ten years of worry and grief.

And it's both. Nero's got them _both_. His father is free and Dante is happy and all of them, finally, get to just live their fucking lives like a normal family. They deserve that, damn it. Don't they?

"Yes," Vergil says, into Nero's hair. He turns, and Nero feels him do something to gather Dante close, maybe pulling him in for a kiss. "Yes."

Yes.

**Author's Note:**

> I must be hormonal or something. Once again I felt a powerful need to write something tearjerky, and I cried while I wrote it. Anyway, not in answer to any prompt, just needed to see this broken version of the family get some healing. Hope you enjoyed. (Reaches for tissues)
> 
> Yes, it's technically more than 10 years since Nero was 4 and is now 15. Yes, I'm speculating that he would be able to activate his devil trigger by age 15, because with Dante to train him and Vergil's fate to motivate him, he might mature and grow in strength faster. He's not really the same Nero that we meet in the games at all, apart from being a little shit, but that's only 'cause he's 15. Anyway. (Blows nose)


End file.
